I was a pool player for most of my earlier years, and traveled around the country quite a bit, so it’s easily enough understood that I wound up in Las Vegas playing a pool tournament one particular year. I won some money, and like most people who come to this town, the game of craps looked interesting to me.

Someone pointed me in the direction of this old man who was an excellent pool player himself in his own day, telling me he knew how to play craps real well. I told him I thought I wanted to play a little, but didn’t really know how, so we took some money to the tables and he did all the playing as I watched. We went down and up, and up and down who knows how many times before it was finally over. We lost. But I couldn’t believe how he worked the money into positions at times where we had a good chance to win a lot of money.

I left Las Vegas except for in my mind. For nearly a year it remained in Vegas, fascinated with how he had moved our money into striking distance of all that money the casino had sitting there on that craps table. I finally decided I’d like to physically re-join my mind again, so I called him and asked him if I’d come back out there, would he teach me what he knows about craps. He said yes, so I was off again for Vegas.

If he told me once how it worked, he must have told me a hundred times. Oh, I know where to put the money and why, along with why not, to put it on any of the other bets, but what he did with the money after the game began, I just couldn’t get it.

One day I asked him to go over it step by step with me (after about two months) while I wrote it down so I could memorize it. I did and it all fell into place that easily then. For eight months, nearly everyday, We walked the casinos, hanging out around craps tables, talking craps. Probably the most unbelievable thing about those eight months was how many people we encountered who actually knew how to play the game properly: two! Out of thousands of people, only two knew the best way to play the game. Now, do you think the general public needs help or not?!

We talked about craps from the time we woke up until the time we went to sleep. It’s the same way we had done with pool years before, and that’s what had enabled us to become great at it. This was the same sort of infatuation only with a new game. And, I guess the fact of the matter is, that is what allowed us to come to the understanding we came to; it was nothing less than an in-depth study program.

We talked with a lot of people about craps. We educated a lot of people. We made a lot of friends, because we taught people how to win a lot of money. And we won a lot of money for some people. There were times that we lost money for other people, too. Those people never got mad at us though, because they saw how it worked, just like I did that first time. They may have lost that time, but they saw the potential. The dealers knew the potential. That’s why they didn’t want us educating anybody; because they knew after we did, that person then had the potential to win a lot of money. And that’s the last thing they want—they work for the casino. It’s their job to lie to people and tell people a poor way to play, as if it’s a good way, while smiling at them. How those people wake up everyday and look at themselves in the mirror is beyond me. I guess the money they make is worth that to them.

For us, we felt like Robin Hoods. We showed people how to take serious advantage of luck when it showed up, and therefore beat the casinos out of a lot of money when that happened. It was all worth it to us. To me anyway. I was young. Money didn’t mean much to me. Of course it bought things I didn’t have, just like for everybody else. But I was going to live forever, and I could always worry about getting money later. Right!

I’d had all the craps I could stand for one life at that point, so I gave up. I left town not clearly understanding how so many people can need something so badly, but not realize it.

There were quite a number of people who we talked with also, who were simply not receptive to a better way to play. I’ve yet to understand that. Numbers can’t lie. If you bet an amount here and get paid less, and you bet the same amount there and get paid more, it’s as clear as math can be. But it’s truly amazing how many people’s ego won’t let them do the smarter thing. I’ve simply never understood that.

I definitely needed to clear my head, so as I said, I left town. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a situation in your life or not where you see such a great need for something that you have the answer for or not, but it sticks with you. Personally, I believe it’s because it’s so helpful to such a vast quantity of people, but for whatever reason, it just won’t let go. Probably around fall of the next year I returned to Vegas with the answer. I told my friend I could make a chart showing people exactly what to do with the money after they had bet it, and they could see it in black and white just like I had to in order to comprehend it clearly. Plus, I would write all of the information down and we could just sell it to them through a magazine or something. Get a business license, have business cards, be professional about the whole thing.

To make a long story short here, he wasn’t having any. He didn’t want to have anything to do with that in any form. So, to my disappointment, we parted ways.

I actually figured we just weren’t reaching as many people as we really needed to. On my own now, I got the business license, and a telephone for the business, created charts, an informative little booklet and put forth my best effort in being professional.

I created an ad and placed it in the local magazine that’s on the nightstand in every hotel room in town. You know the type. Where to eat, who’s in town for entertainment and all the city low-down. It was on the first page of the "gaming guide"— first thing you saw: THE CRAPS TEACHER. I got phone calls. It worked. I’d go meet the people in their hotel room, show them the program, and they’d grab me by the arm heading for the nearest craps table.

I’ll never forget—the very first call I got was this guy from Hawaii—his wife actually. She wanted to give it to him as an anniversary present. We won $3,400 at one of the casinos that afternoon, then he called everybody in Hawaii I believe, telling them about it. We had fun. It went okay through the winter, but I still wasn’t reaching as many people as I needed or wanted to. Disenchanted with the scenario, I left town again.

Don’t forget it gets 120º in Las Vegas in summers. Not my idea of pleasant living conditions. I grew up in mountains where there are streams and plenty of trees for shade; RETREAT!

The next year I decided to try my ad in a different place. A lot of calls came from people after they had gotten home. They would say, "I was looking at this magazine on the plane on the way home. I wish I had seen this while I was there."

So, I figured I’d try to reach them before they started their trip out here. USA TODAY seemed like the logical choice. It reached people all over the country and of course the appropriate clientele.

I called them and told them I’d like to place an ad to sell a craps booklet for $250. They told me that didn’t sound like any sort of thing that they’d be interested in being involved with. When I asked them why, they simply said $250 sounds like an awful lot of money for a booklet on craps and that just didn’t go along with their reputation. I explained to the lady that it had a chart along with it also and was a good thing for the people who bought her newspaper.

She asked me to send her a copy of the entire thing and she’d review it and get back with me concerning her decision. Sure enough, she did.

"Mr. Robinson," she began, "I apologize for whatever inconvenience we may have caused you, but after reading over your craps package, We believe this is quite an unusual piece of information you’ve put together, and merits all the assistance we can offer you in making this available to the public."

They did help me by placing it under the proper heading, along with their idea on how it should be worded. It looked like this:

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Call for a FREE craps booklet written by a Pro about a simple strategy for winning the most money possible.

I had an 800 number so it didn’t cost anyone who was interested any money to receive what I was offering. Plus, they got to talk with me about it, which was a good thing in the beginning, but was a bad thing by the end.

After we talked, I’d send them the free booklet which was about half of the information they were really needing, yet enough to realize that what I was offering was worthwhile. Then they’d send me $250, and I’d send them the important stuff.

Out of one hundred phone calls, twenty-five people bought it. How it turned out to be bad though—all I was doing all the time was talking on the phone! If I’d wanted to do that I would have just gone to the telephone company and gotten a job as an operator!

Another idea and another year down the tubes! I did meet some nice people though. I remember this one guy who kept calling and telling me how he was doing with it. He later ended up coming out here and he told me, "You know Gene, you’re selling this thing way too cheaply. I have an oil company and I buy information concerning where to drill for $5,000 a pop and it’s frequently no good at all. What you’re selling people is valuable information. You should be getting more for it."

I explained to him that of course I’d like to, but not everybody owns oil companies, and I was interested in everybody being able to afford it. He understood. Of course, he could have given me a $4,750 tip too, but he didn’t. He’ll get a laugh out of that.